Category Archives: Influences

Influences

I speak to the dead but I’m insane so it doesn’t count! #spiritualism

September 14, 2014 – 10:36 am

image

The process of death and humanity’s awareness of its own mortality has for millennia been a concern of the world’s religious traditions and the hub of philosophical inquiry. (Am I an existentialist or a spiritual soul?) You can simplify the basic belief structures surrounding death into roughly three convenient boxes.

  1. The belief in resurrection (associated with Abrahamic religions)
  2. Reincarnation or rebirth (associated with Dharmic religions)
  3. Or that consciousness permanently ceases to exist, known as eternal oblivion.

The belief in “eternal oblivion” stems from the hypothesis that the brain creates the mind; therefore, when the brain dies, the mind ceases to exist. This state can be described as “nothingness”. Many people who believe in an eternal oblivion, believe that the concept of an afterlife is scientifically impossible.

Any ways you are fucking DEAD – can I talk to you?!

Spiritualists believe in communicating with the spirits of discarnate humans. They believe that spirit mediums are humans gifted to do this, often through séances. Anyone may become a medium through study and practice. They believe that spirits are capable of growth and perfection, progressing through higher spheres or planes. The afterlife is not a static place, but one in which spirits evolve. The two beliefs—that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits may lie on a higher plane—lead to a third belief, that spirits can provide knowledge about moral and ethical issues, as well as about God and the afterlife. Thus many members speak of spirit guides—specific spirits, often contacted, relied upon for worldly and spiritual guidance.

You could argue that by turning to the spirit world you are seeking reassurance and answers to life’s problems which are maybe caused through stress, or being afraid your world is falling apart,  or you’re experiencing sudden changes and disruption and you don’t quite know what to do. By subcontracting your responsibility to the dead you have a get out of jail card. Perhaps subconsciously you’ve wanted a solution to an issue but didn’t quite expect things to have turned out as they have. Using a spiritualist medium is an opportunity for a possible new beginning, a revelation or divine intervention. Is this an existential attitude or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world?

My Grandmother was a ‘Spiritualist‘ by conviction – with local businessmen and tradesmen alike knocking on her door for advice and guidance,  her ‘messages’ influenced deals and life changes all around her. The respect she had was far larger than her diminutive size.

I speak to the dead but I’m insane so it doesn’t count!

image

Original thought = original sin = so fucking sue me, I adore your arse From birth to death, it is the stuff in the middle that is sometimes slightly different. To say we are all unique is strictly not true – love, loneliness, disappointment, illness, parenthood (I love my boys) etc. are things we all experience in someway or another. Yes, it is probably true that I have gone […]

Clifford T WardI wonder how many of my old teachers from my old schools are dead – some were my age when I was at school? I wonder how many of my contemporaries are dead?

The only school teacher I know for sure is dead is Clifford T Ward, he was my English teacher (which explains a lot). He was a singer songwriter who had a ‘chart’ sucess with ‘Gaye‘ – the story was that she was a pupil in my class (she was also a girlfriend of mine). His English lessons were spent writting requests to ‘radio one’ DJs – Tony Blackburn et al. There is a bit more about how CTW influenced me here. He was a nice bloke (but a crap teacher) and his lyrics were sometime silly but then sometimes sentimental or poignant.

+++++++++++++++++

Is This My God?

Download this,

Pay for the clicks.

Is this my God,

Is this my savior?

PB (aka TW) 2009

Related articles
Tags , | Permalink | Comments Off on I speak to the dead but I’m insane so it doesn’t count! #spiritualism
Influences

Why can’t I think like Bernard?

May 20, 2013 – 7:11 pm
20130519-222506.jpg

Sans jury ni récompense

I wish I felt like experimenting with paint.

Aquetin carried out an experiment studying the light passing through the colored panes of glass in his veranda. Bernard wrote and commented on this experiment, ‘Aquetin observed the light streaming through the coloured panes of a glazed door and noticed that yellow produced an impression of sunlight; green of dawn; blue of night; red of twilight.’ Bernard painted ‘The Reaper’ in the key of yellow (often repeated later by Van Gough) and in the key of blue, ‘The Avenue de Clichy at Evening’. These paintings were exhibited at the Revue Independante, at the Salon des Independants and at the headquarters of Les Vingt in Brussells. Read more…

The Société des Artistes Indépendants (Society of Independent Artists), Salon des Indépendants, formed in Paris 19 July 1884. The association began with the organization of massive exhibitions in Paris and was established in response to the rigid traditionalism of the official government-sponsored Salon. Their exhibitions were where new artworks were often first displayed and where paintings were widely discussed and in some cases caused controversial outrage in the newspapers and journals of the polite, conservative Parisian society.

Choosing the tagline “No jury nor awards” (Sans jury ni récompense) the society’s aims were to champion new ideas and thoughts that were prevalent in the cafe cultures of Paris and Europe. These contemporary ideas were being marginalized by mainstream critics and galleries. The strategic alliance between these artists from different backgrounds and methodologies was extremely successful in promoting their collective vision. The publicity gained by this ‘outsider’ tactic became the launching pad for many artists, who by gaining notoriety and publicity, crossed over into the mainstream.

Albert Dubois-Pillet, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac were among its co-founders. For three decades their annual exhibitions moulded the art of the early 20th century. World War I brought a closure to the salon, though the Artistes Indépendants remained active.

 

Notes on Painting – which I should keep reminding myself about :

  1. The act of being creative is a love hate thing – The Beauty and The Beast someone fetch a priest (ref. David Bowie).
  2. Action Painting – Pollock. Print dribbled paint.
  3. Soft pink landscapes (1980) Richard Hamilton A landscape of soft focus and toilet paper – a turgid landscape. Collotype and Screenprint – text and image. A remembered exhibition.
  4. Stoned Moon Series’ was Rauschenberg’s ambitious response to the American space program and the landmark Apollo 11 mission that put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface in July 1969.
  5. Being overpowered by a Rothko exhibition.
  6. Being overpowered by a Gerhard Richter exhibition.
Related articles
Tags , , , , , , | Permalink | Comments Off on Why can’t I think like Bernard?
Influences

Nazi Propaganda – BOZAR – Francis Bacon’s Studio

March 14, 2013 – 10:56 am

There are books that bring new perspectives to painting and the lives / methodologies of artists. Unfortunately Francis Bacon and Nazi Propaganda brings nothing new to the party.

The work and times of Francis Bacon are well documented. The use and origins of Bacon’s source material are well-known, some of which are even preserved. This book is a shortcut, a narrow, tunnel visioned, easy access pass to the imagery that helped to inspire his art – a snapshot and lightweight introduction from a contemporary point of view.

This over emphasis on Nazi imagery is an attempt by the author to shock and imply a tenuous connection between Bacon and the Nazi regime. This book clouds the issue of how artists draw inspiration from the sources around them. These images of Nazi propaganda were (probably) simply metaphors for violence, death and persecution – had Hitler conquered Britain Bacon’s legacy would not exist. They still are powerful photographic and graphic images that send a shudder down your spine but they were only a part of Bacon’s bigger picture.

Does one methodology fit all? – painting is more complicated than that.

It would make more sense to see some of the imagery for yourself. BOZAR fine arts museum in Brussels has an exhibition of Bacon bits. The contents from his studio are part of a show running until May 2013. “Changing States: Contemporary Irish Art & Francis Bacon’s Studio”includes photographs of friends and lovers, medical books, wildlife and sport are jumbled together with classical references and artists monographs as well as unfinished paintings.

The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon

The paintings of Francis Bacon have always stood out in the crowded museums and galleries that are stuffed full of mediocre British paintings. Daniel Farson gives a personal view of his (if only in his own mind) ‘friend’s’ chaotic debauched life.

In 1962, Farson made a documentary for Associated-Rediffusion about pub entertainment in the East End of London where he lived, called Time Gentlemen Please (this led directly to the company’s later series Stars and Garters, with which Farson was not personally involved). Soon after this he bought a pub, The Waterman’s Arms, in the East End with the explicit intent of reviving old-time music hall, but this failed. By the end of 1964 he had resigned from Associated-Rediffusion (by then renamed Rediffusion London) keeping a lower public profile for the rest of his life. He moved from London to live in his parents’ house in Devon, but continued to visit the pubs and drinking clubs of London’s Soho on a regular basis… Continue reading 

Related articles
Tags , , , , | Permalink | Comments (2)
Influences

Vision after the Sermon

May 1, 2012 – 1:16 pm

La vision après le sermon (Paul Gauguin)

This is one of those paintings I needed to see – it was an important turning point in art history. The bold use of colour was deep rooted and part of the bedrock of the Synthetist style of modern art – an extension of the pioneering vision of other artist including Emile Bernard.

Vision after the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel) is an oil painting by French artist Paul Gauguin in 1888. It is now in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. It depicts a scene from The Bible, where Jacob wrestles an angel. A vision or hallucination that the Breton women experience after a sermon in church. Painted in Pont-Aven, Brittany, France, the inherent spiritality of subjects in this painting, the influence of the cloisonnist style, all point towards a great painting and a break through in 19 century art.

Related articles
Tags , , | Permalink | Comments Off on Vision after the Sermon

« Previous Page

« Previous Page